A bucket excavator loads coal onto a truck at a West Coast mine in 1948. At this time coal was used to power steam trains. By the late 1940s state-owned mines were producing over half of New Zealand’s coal. In 1948 coal deposits were nationalised, although this was quickly reversed by the National government two years later.
Using this item
Alexander Turnbull Library, National Publicity Studios Collection
Reference:
1/2-034006; F (AAQT 6401, A6307)
Photograph by Edward Percival Christensen
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.
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